Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Dragonet. But
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Speaker 1: dot net. Now here. From May the first, nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: two is the Big Safe.
Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
Speaker 2: names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
Speaker 2: detective sergeant. You're assigned to burglary detail for more than
Speaker 2: two months. A wave of safe burglaries. Apparently it's the
Speaker 2: work professionals. A job's are well planned, well executed. There's
Speaker 2: no leed to the whereabouts of the suspects. Your job
Speaker 2: get them.
Speaker 3: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. Well the
Speaker 3: next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
Speaker 3: you will travel step by step on the side of
Speaker 3: the law through an actual case transcribed from official police violence,
Speaker 3: from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
Speaker 3: the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4: It was Sunday, June eighth, was warm in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: We're working the day watch out a Burglery Division safe detail.
Speaker 4: My partner's Bill Lockwood. The bosses Captain Wisdom. My name
Speaker 4: is Friday. I was on the way back to the
Speaker 4: office and it was eight thirty six am.
Speaker 5: When I got to Room forty five.
Speaker 6: Burglery Division.
Speaker 5: There's nothing a book for us, my captain, about your
Speaker 5: partner Lockwood? Yeah, what's that? I got to make that
Speaker 5: sick report on him yesterday? Did you call him? I
Speaker 5: talked to him on the phone last night.
Speaker 4: Pretty bad ankle spring doctor figures would be out for
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks.
Speaker 5: Anyway. Who's a fellow you got there?
Speaker 7: Suspect Jones of McCready picked up on Steakcout drugstore third
Speaker 7: in Ventura.
Speaker 5: What do you got on? Creedy says.
Speaker 7: They picked him up about quarter to five this morning,
Speaker 7: and Jones were staked out inside the drug store. So
Speaker 7: this fellow drive up in the car, get out and
Speaker 7: try the front door of the place.
Speaker 5: Hu and he went around and backed the.
Speaker 7: Place, tried the back door, and he came around in
Speaker 7: front again, tried to jimmy the door. Finally gave up,
Speaker 7: gott in his car and started to drive off. Jones
Speaker 7: of McCready followed him, picked him up and brought him in.
Speaker 5: Where's Jones mcreadie? Now you know I told him to
Speaker 5: go ahead home. No reason for him to hang around.
Speaker 5: We carried the thing from here. What have you done
Speaker 5: so far? You check him through our and I yeah,
Speaker 5: called Frank cunning game.
Speaker 7: He's doing it now Floyd and address of two thirty
Speaker 7: nine West ninety second Street.
Speaker 5: That's what he tells us. Anyway. Is that your name? Fellaw?
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's my name. Saw my identification. No reason for
Speaker 7: me to.
Speaker 5: Like and check me out. Hold your hand up there.
Speaker 5: We get these cuffs off, all right?
Speaker 7: There you are, thanks, you're tired sitting in her handcuffs sitting
Speaker 7: in one place, Frank.
Speaker 4: You want to tell Gaffey will be down the interrogation
Speaker 4: room when and I calls back, tell him.
Speaker 5: The transferred in there, would you? Yeah, okay, I'll meet
Speaker 5: you then. All right, thanks, all right, boy, let's go.
Speaker 5: I talk to you down the hall. You know, let's
Speaker 5: get this thing over with.
Speaker 7: I don't feel good. I want to get out of here.
Speaker 5: What you're shaking for is make me get nervous about it?
Speaker 5: He was sick.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I haven't been feeling good at all last couple
Speaker 7: of days, wouldn't you know?
Speaker 5: And I smoked?
Speaker 7: He said, well, Jim to have a cigarette? Three?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, thanks, there's a lighte for you. Yeah, god, thanks,
Speaker 5: all right, turn around a minute. Will you let me
Speaker 5: look at your eyes? Huh? Turn around? All right, let's go.
Speaker 5: It's okay. Oh. I tell Gafne you put through the
Speaker 5: cult mar Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 7: You sure this won't take long? And I like to
Speaker 7: get out of here and get home. I've been sick
Speaker 7: for a week. I'll to be in bed right now.
Speaker 5: We'll make it as fast as we can. All right,
Speaker 5: in here, have a chairboard?
Speaker 4: Yeah all right, mister, you say you're not feeling well,
Speaker 4: you're tired, you want to go home.
Speaker 5: So are we We've been working all night. How about
Speaker 5: getting the bottom of this thing?
Speaker 7: Sure, I'm all for it. Try to explain to the
Speaker 7: guys have picked me up. I don't know what it's
Speaker 7: all about. Ask me anything you want.
Speaker 5: Now, let's start it here.
Speaker 7: Boy, what were you doing out there hanging around that
Speaker 7: drug store quarter to five this morning? It's the same thing,
Speaker 7: un total the other officers. I was sick and wanted
Speaker 7: to get something from my nerves jump as a cat,
Speaker 7: couldn't sleep, And then the.
Speaker 5: Drug store was closed. That was pretty obvious, wasn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right, it was. I just drove up there,
Speaker 7: tried the door, and I saw the joint was closed,
Speaker 7: so I left. That's all there is to it. Just
Speaker 7: why I totally other.
Speaker 4: No, it's not true, boy, and you know it isn't.
Speaker 4: You hung around the store for more than ten minutes.
Speaker 4: You tried the front door, then you waited a couple
Speaker 4: of minutes. You went around to the back, and you
Speaker 4: tried to get in back there. You couldn't make it,
Speaker 4: so you came around front again. You tried to jimmy
Speaker 4: the it didn't you.
Speaker 7: No, that's not it. You got it all wrong.
Speaker 5: How about this boy? This your crow bar? Yeah? What
Speaker 5: about it? Just a car too.
Speaker 7: You used to fix flat tires? Carry it around all
Speaker 7: the time.
Speaker 5: In the car. I carry it on you.
Speaker 7: Oh not all the time. I just happened to have it,
Speaker 7: that's all.
Speaker 5: Now. Look, boy, that's not going to get it.
Speaker 4: The officers have pitched you up. So you using this
Speaker 4: bar in the door of that drug store. I thought
Speaker 4: you were willing to get on the facts. You were
Speaker 4: going to square with us, how about it?
Speaker 7: Sure, sure, I'll square with you. I wanted to get
Speaker 7: over as much as you do. Just tell me what
Speaker 7: you want to know. All we want is the truth.
Speaker 7: It's a dress in your idea, the one you gave us.
Speaker 7: Is that your true address?
Speaker 5: You're living there? Now?
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right, check it out if you want. I'm
Speaker 7: not lying.
Speaker 5: No reason to line we.
Speaker 4: Think there is this address of yours. It's just about
Speaker 4: ten miles away from where you were picked up. Now
Speaker 4: you tell us how much sense it makes driving ten
Speaker 4: miles to a drug store four thirty in the morning.
Speaker 7: I had to I was sick. It was the only
Speaker 7: place over lying.
Speaker 4: And you know it, mister, you had to pass at
Speaker 4: least two all night drug stores on the way. Why
Speaker 4: couldn't you stop at one of those?
Speaker 7: I didn't see any stores open. I was sick. I
Speaker 7: just kept driving till I spied a place I thought
Speaker 7: it was open.
Speaker 5: Looked to me like it was open.
Speaker 7: A lot of lights in the window inside the store too.
Speaker 7: I didn't know it was close, So I tried the door.
Speaker 5: Usually tried doors with a crowbar.
Speaker 7: Boy, Look, look, what are you getting that? Do you
Speaker 7: think I was trying to break in that place?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what we think.
Speaker 7: Well, what for what I want to break in there?
Speaker 7: I wanted to get something from my nerves, that's all.
Speaker 7: I want to find a drug store? Why should I
Speaker 7: break the open a place? And did you just get
Speaker 7: a bottle of medicine?
Speaker 5: We don't think you were looking for medicine? Void?
Speaker 7: Well then, what was it? What are you figured?
Speaker 5: This is what we figure, mister.
Speaker 4: You're going in that store to burglarise the safe The
Speaker 4: area is the same, the time elements right, So there
Speaker 4: is the type of business.
Speaker 5: The m matches right down the line.
Speaker 7: I don't know what you're talking about. Six safe jobs
Speaker 7: in the last two I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 7: It's the truth. I'm not a burklar. You got me wrong.
Speaker 7: I never touched a safe in my life.
Speaker 4: How many times you've been arrested, mister, huh? How many
Speaker 4: times you've been arrested?
Speaker 7: Well, a couple of times have been picked up, nothing serious, though,
Speaker 7: so help me.
Speaker 5: It's the truth.
Speaker 7: I never touched it safe in my whole life.
Speaker 5: It's not going to do much good lining to his boy.
Speaker 5: We'll get everything we need from records.
Speaker 7: I've got a record. I ain't denying up, and I'm
Speaker 7: no Berkeley.
Speaker 4: And what were you doing a quarter of five this
Speaker 4: morning trying to get in that drug store if you're
Speaker 4: not a burgler.
Speaker 7: I tried to explain to you. I wasn't trying to
Speaker 7: break in. I needed some medicine, something for my nerves.
Speaker 7: I thought the place was open. I'm a sick man.
Speaker 7: I swear on a Bible off So that's just the
Speaker 7: way it was.
Speaker 5: I got it. Yeah, Friday talking. Oh yeah, Charles Boyd. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that's right, that's him. What do you got, uh huh?
Speaker 5: All the same? I see. Give me the last two
Speaker 5: or no, the last two arrests again? Yeah? May ninth,
Speaker 5: May twenty second, all right, Conningham, Yeah, thanks very much Frank,
Speaker 5: you got that folder there, those crime reports. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: but he had said Boyd was in custody May ninth,
Speaker 5: May twenty second. What was he in narcotics? He's a user,
Speaker 5: long record, it's all the.
Speaker 4: Same though, never been picked up for anything but narcotics
Speaker 4: just about rose him.
Speaker 5: Not huh ninth and the twenty seconds in jail. He
Speaker 5: couldn't have had anything to do with those last day.
Speaker 5: Jee man, it's about the size of it.
Speaker 7: You guys straight now. I told you you thought I
Speaker 7: was lying, didn't John know Burke? You know what my
Speaker 7: record is. I never tested safe in my life.
Speaker 5: Just checking it out, Boyd. Sometimes it happens this way.
Speaker 7: Sure, I'm hard feeling, Take off now and go home.
Speaker 7: That's feeling well at all? I guess it's okay.
Speaker 5: No, you just sit still, Boyd. You're not going in.
Speaker 5: We mean red tab on your car down at the
Speaker 5: record Bureau.
Speaker 4: Your last arrest May twenty second, violation State in Narcotics Act.
Speaker 5: He went out on a fifteen hundred dollars bail.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5: It was all legal. I paid for it.
Speaker 4: Why didn't you show up for your preliminary hearing? We
Speaker 4: got a bench warn't for your arrest.
Speaker 7: Oh no, that wouldn't do that to me, would I
Speaker 7: was sick and better it couldn't make it to court.
Speaker 7: You just look at me, you can tell, can't ye
Speaker 7: ought to be in bed?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you don't look good at all.
Speaker 7: Of course i'd don't. I'm a sick man, really sick.
Speaker 7: I would be in a hospital.
Speaker 5: Well, maybe that's where they'll send you.
Speaker 4: We continued questioning the suspect, Charles Boyd, who finally admitted
Speaker 4: that he'd gone to the drug store early that morning
Speaker 4: for the purpose of burgerizing the place to obtain narcotics.
Speaker 4: He told us it was his first attempt at burglary,
Speaker 4: and further interrogation proved beyond a doubt.
Speaker 5: He had nothing to do with the current wave of
Speaker 5: safe burglaries.
Speaker 4: He was booked on the bench warrant and narcotics detail
Speaker 4: was notified of his arrests. For all practical purposes, we
Speaker 4: were back where we'd started from two months before, when
Speaker 4: the campaign of safe jobs first started.
Speaker 5: Boyd was just another in a long line.
Speaker 4: Of possible suspects who had to be tracked down and
Speaker 4: checked out. In the final analysis, they meant nothing to
Speaker 4: the case, but tracking.
Speaker 5: Them down and checking.
Speaker 4: Them out meant long hours of leg work, days even weeks,
Speaker 4: and then more hours spent interrogating them. Boyd typified the
Speaker 4: possible suspect. He added nothing, but he couldn't be ignored.
Speaker 4: In the weeks that followed, stakeouts continued in the general
Speaker 4: area where the safe burglaries had been operating. No further
Speaker 4: lead the investigation went on. On June seventeenth, Frank Smith
Speaker 4: and I drove out to the San Fernando.
Speaker 5: Valley to check a lead on a possible suspect.
Speaker 4: We'd gotten from one of our informs was that the
Speaker 4: possible suspect, an ex convict with the name of Mark
Speaker 4: Chandler who'd served time for burgery, had apparently come into.
Speaker 5: Some money recently through the parole office.
Speaker 4: We located Chandler on a chicken ranch just outside of
Speaker 4: Van Ive.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I've been out here almost three months now.
Speaker 7: Nice life, pretty hard work though, got a peer routine
Speaker 7: question is volume mark? Like we told you with from
Speaker 7: burglary detail, I guess you know why.
Speaker 5: We're out here. Yeah, I think I get the idea.
Speaker 7: I admit there was a time when you wouldn't be
Speaker 7: very welcome, but right now it's different. Anything I can
Speaker 7: do to help, it's all right, folks.
Speaker 5: We're gonna lay it right on the table for you. Mark,
Speaker 5: you all miss placed you? Yeah, that's right, Me and
Speaker 5: my brother. Where'd the money come from? My brother? He
Speaker 5: set the whole thing up. When you say you and
Speaker 5: your brother, who's money bought the place? Mark? Well, my
Speaker 5: brother made the down payment. You can check on it.
Speaker 7: The whole deal went through USCO right down here at
Speaker 7: the local bank. What's the deal anyway?
Speaker 5: Didn't you check with my proofster? Yeah, we checked with Galloway.
Speaker 7: He told us you was still unactive parole. You were
Speaker 7: running a chicken ranch. I didn't say it was for
Speaker 7: your brother though. Well, I thought I filled them in
Speaker 7: on it. I didn't have enough cash to swing the deal.
Speaker 7: My brother put up most of the day. I only
Speaker 7: had eight hundred buck Uh huh.
Speaker 5: That's your car back there in the driveway, Mark, No,
Speaker 5: that's my brother's nice one. Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 7: I got permission from the pro offster to drive. Say,
Speaker 7: would you mind walking back with me to the brewterer Shack.
Speaker 7: I got a new batch of Rhode.
Speaker 5: Islands in this morning day. Old Chick's got to be.
Speaker 7: Sure that he's right, Yeah right, there's a lot of
Speaker 7: work around.
Speaker 5: A place like this. I just built those pins there.
Speaker 7: Uh huh.
Speaker 5: They're nice, good looking flock of chicks there, wouldn't you
Speaker 5: say four weeks old? Those are bar rocks.
Speaker 7: And notice how they're starting to feather out, already getting
Speaker 7: nice and heavy.
Speaker 5: Make wonderful friars, you know, Oh that's all. Oh yeah,
Speaker 5: just oh you look at that mash rack. They like fens.
Speaker 5: I just still that thing an hour ago. That's where
Speaker 5: the money goes. You know, that mash goes for better
Speaker 5: than five bucks a sack.
Speaker 7: Look, we don't want to take too much of your time, Chandler.
Speaker 7: We can see your business. We've got a couple of dates.
Speaker 5: We'd like to check with you where you were, what
Speaker 5: you did?
Speaker 7: Oh sure, bro, Just let me check the temperature in
Speaker 7: the brewder house here.
Speaker 5: Won't take a minute. Come on in. They're pretty cute
Speaker 5: when they're smaller. Let me see here. Just look at
Speaker 5: that hun Joe piled all over in jail. I must
Speaker 5: be more than a thousand on the least. Yeah, just right,
Speaker 5: eighty nine. I got to watch them pretty close.
Speaker 7: The first week fell up the road locks, the big
Speaker 7: backs last week heating element and the bruta went out overnight.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, got to shove that door hard six a little, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'll get it.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 5: What else was the officers?
Speaker 7: Glad to help you any way, I can those dates
Speaker 7: we want to check Mark. It was almost a month ago,
Speaker 7: the weekend in May seventh.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Can you copy your time on that weekend where you
Speaker 5: were what you did? It's seventh Yeah, let's see. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I was here any way, approving that. Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 7: I started here the twenty third of April and been
Speaker 7: here every night since.
Speaker 5: Anyone.
Speaker 7: We can check with him at well. My brother and
Speaker 7: his wife they were here.
Speaker 5: They can tell you.
Speaker 7: Neighbors too, they come over for cards on the weekend.
Speaker 7: I come to think of it, I remember my pro
Speaker 7: officer was out to see me one.
Speaker 5: Of those weekends. And pretty sure that you can check
Speaker 5: with him. All right, Mark, thanks?
Speaker 7: It wass a pitch anyway, sargint. The safe jobs around
Speaker 7: town is at it?
Speaker 5: That's it? You heard anything, Mark? And he rumbles at all.
Speaker 7: Oh, sorry, this job keeping pretty close to home.
Speaker 5: I don't get around at all.
Speaker 7: Maybe two three nights a month. That's the only time
Speaker 7: I get out.
Speaker 4: That's all we're asking about. Before we left the suspect,
Speaker 4: Mark Chandler. We called his parole officer and he substantiated
Speaker 4: the fact that he visited with Chandler on the night
Speaker 4: of May seventh, the date of one of the safe burgeries.
Speaker 4: We checked with his brother, his sister in law, and
Speaker 4: the neighbors, and all of them fully corroborated his story.
Speaker 4: Before we left, we were satisfied that Chandler had nothing
Speaker 4: to do with the safe burgeries. Was just another of
Speaker 4: the more than half a hundred possibles that we checked
Speaker 4: out in the course of the investigation. On June twenty second,
Speaker 4: we got a lead on still another one.
Speaker 5: It came from the proprietor.
Speaker 4: Of a fixed shop on West Picco Boulevard near Normandy.
Speaker 5: We drove out to interview him.
Speaker 7: Yeah, just a minute, Officer's be with you in a minute,
Speaker 7: all right, Yeah, okay, if you get these keys made,
Speaker 7: the lady will be back soon, says.
Speaker 5: You need them. What time you got Frank ten to twelve? Hungry?
Speaker 5: I didn't have much breakfast? How about dropping by? Philippi's
Speaker 5: all right, it's.
Speaker 7: Me I could do any good friendship Sandwich haven't been
Speaker 7: done there for a while. Yeah, all right, off, sir,
Speaker 7: Sorry to keep you waiting. I had to get the
Speaker 7: keys done, I promised the one.
Speaker 5: That's all right, mister van Or. But what was it
Speaker 5: you want to see us about? Well, I don't know
Speaker 5: how to tell the truth. Maybe it's something, maybe it's
Speaker 5: nothing at all. I just don't know.
Speaker 2: Figured I ought to let somebody.
Speaker 5: Know about it.
Speaker 7: Yes, a young fellow was in here the day before yesterday.
Speaker 7: Said his name was Ralph McKinley, which told me he
Speaker 7: lived around the neighborhood.
Speaker 5: But I don't think I ever saw him before. He
Speaker 5: didn't act right to me. He said he's an inventor.
Speaker 5: He doubt it though.
Speaker 7: He just didn't look good part to me, young fella.
Speaker 7: You know, dress is pretty flashy. Never met an inventor
Speaker 7: that looked like that before.
Speaker 5: What do you want with you, sir?
Speaker 6: He want me to make up a piece of machinery
Speaker 6: for him.
Speaker 7: He said it was a special part of a new
Speaker 7: gadget he was working in.
Speaker 5: Brought in his own drawing of the thing. I got
Speaker 5: it down here something. What'd the young fellow look like?
Speaker 5: Would you remember that? No? Typical cool room cowboy. I
Speaker 5: guess about twenty nine thirty years old, thin.
Speaker 7: Side tall, got a lot of gray hair for a
Speaker 7: young fellaw his hair was almost great. This is what
Speaker 7: he wants me to make up for him.
Speaker 5: What do you think it's supposed to be?
Speaker 7: Miss McKinley said it was part of a new hydraulic
Speaker 7: press he's working on.
Speaker 5: I got a few doubts about that.
Speaker 7: How do you mean, Oh, I've been tinkering around in
Speaker 7: this business long enough to know what goes into.
Speaker 5: A hydraulic press. Can't see where this thing fits in
Speaker 5: at all.
Speaker 7: Well, what's your idea on it? I think it's a
Speaker 7: pull only one job. There any good for?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Breaking into a safe.
Speaker 5: Before we left the fixed shop, van Owen gave us
Speaker 5: a complete.
Speaker 4: Description of Ralph McKinley, the man who'd ordered the gadget
Speaker 4: made for him. We showed him several mugshots of possible suspects,
Speaker 4: but he was unable to make any identification. Van Owen
Speaker 4: told us that McKinley said he'd call back in about
Speaker 4: three or four days.
Speaker 5: To pick it up.
Speaker 4: Except for the man's chance remark that he lived in
Speaker 4: the neighborhood, van Owen had no idea as to his whereabouts.
Speaker 4: Twelve ten pm. We drove back to the office and
Speaker 4: made arrangements for an immediate stakeout at the fixed shop.
Speaker 4: Then we checked the name and description of Ralph McKinley
Speaker 4: through R and I through the staff's office. It got
Speaker 4: us nothing. As far as we could find out. He
Speaker 4: had no previous criminal record. The end of the week
Speaker 4: came and went. The man known as McKinley failed to
Speaker 4: show up at Van Owen's fix it shop to pick
Speaker 4: up the article that he'd ordered. Eight o'clock Monday morning,
Speaker 4: June twenty eighth. We got the report when we checked
Speaker 4: in for work. Despite all precautions, another safe job had
Speaker 4: occurred over the weekend, this time at a liquor store
Speaker 4: on South Alvarado. The time, the area and the m
Speaker 4: O were generally the same. Frank and I drove out
Speaker 4: to the location. The store was located in the middle
Speaker 4: of the block, directly beneath an apartment hotel. Two of
Speaker 4: the rooms on the second floor of the hotel were
Speaker 4: situated above the liquor store. In one of these rooms,
Speaker 4: a hole had been ripped in.
Speaker 5: The floor, a hole large enough to allow.
Speaker 4: A man to pass through it and gain access to
Speaker 4: the liquor store directly beneath.
Speaker 5: After we checked over the room, we put in a
Speaker 5: call for Ray Pinker and the crime lab crew.
Speaker 4: Then we went downstairs to interview the manager of the hotel,
Speaker 4: A Clyde Winners.
Speaker 8: I rented that room Friday night a couple of young fellows.
Speaker 8: They checked out a few minutes before seven. I figure
Speaker 8: I'm pretty good judge of faces. They sure didn't look
Speaker 8: like thieves to me. Had their registerment twitters. One signed
Speaker 8: his name Gordon, the other one was Richardson. I think
Speaker 8: the register's right outside of the desk. You can check
Speaker 8: it if you yes, said we'd like to do that.
Speaker 5: When these two men, Gordon and Richardson checked in here,
Speaker 5: did they have any baggage with him? Would you know that? Oh?
Speaker 8: Yes, yes they had baggage. They took most of it
Speaker 8: with them, though they left a few old calls by eye.
Speaker 8: They must have left for the back way sometime late
Speaker 8: Sunday night. I figure imagine tearing up the floor of
Speaker 8: that room. Allows they bums. I should like to get
Speaker 8: my hands on them.
Speaker 5: Did they have a card? You know? Yeah? They had
Speaker 5: a car. I got the license to them. But do
Speaker 5: you think you'd recognize the two minute you saw him.
Speaker 8: Again, Oh, tag him in a minute, Be sure that
Speaker 8: I was. I I know him in a minute, especially
Speaker 8: the young fellow Richard, and they could have been more
Speaker 8: than twenty seven eight years old. Hair was gray, almost
Speaker 8: completely gray.
Speaker 3: You are listening to drag met authentic stories of your
Speaker 3: police force and action.
Speaker 4: Monday, June twenty eighth, eight fifty five am, the crime
Speaker 4: lab crew arrived at the scene of the latest safe burgery,
Speaker 4: the liquor store on South Albarado, and began their investigation.
Speaker 4: The store was gone over thoroughly, as well as the
Speaker 4: hotel room directly above it, through which the burghers had
Speaker 4: gained access by ripping a hole in the floor. In
Speaker 4: the store itself, a few feet from the safe, the
Speaker 4: men from the crime lab found what appeared to be
Speaker 4: a broken button, probably off a coat. They also found
Speaker 4: a crumpled.
Speaker 5: Envelope on the floor with the name F.
Speaker 4: Gordon on it written in pencil, along with the half
Speaker 4: a dozen pieces of.
Speaker 5: Clothing found in the hotel room.
Speaker 4: The items were taken back to the crime lab for
Speaker 4: further examination. Nine ten am, after we finished interviewing the
Speaker 4: hotel manager Clyde Winters, Frank Smith and I returned to
Speaker 4: the office with a license number and description of the
Speaker 4: suspects car, as well as exemplars of their handwriting which
Speaker 4: we'd obtained from the hotel register. We gave our DMV
Speaker 4: all the information on the car and they began an
Speaker 4: immediate check. The vehicle was registered in the name of
Speaker 4: Ralph McKinley at a Bronson Avenue address.
Speaker 5: The legal owner was a local bank.
Speaker 4: We checked the Bronson Avenue place, but they told us
Speaker 4: there that the man known as McKinley had moved out
Speaker 4: seven months before.
Speaker 5: They had no information on his whereabouts.
Speaker 4: Ten twenty am we talked to the people at the bank,
Speaker 4: which held a pink slip on the car. They told
Speaker 4: us that the last two monthly payments on the car
Speaker 4: had been mailed in from a Clifford Street address. Frank
Speaker 4: and I drove out to the location, a one story
Speaker 4: duplex apartment building near the intersection of Clifford and Beverly Boulevard.
Speaker 7: Nice units. Aren't you run up all over town?
Speaker 5: He seemed to be, don't they. I'll get it. Yeah,
Speaker 5: go your name, Ralph McKinley. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4: What police officers, you want to get your coat McKinley
Speaker 4: like talkie downtown or what's it all about?
Speaker 5: Anybody else living here with you?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 6: On, just myself? Look, can you mind telling me what
Speaker 6: you saw about?
Speaker 5: Got a few questions we'd like to ask you won't
Speaker 5: take long.
Speaker 6: I can't go with you now. I got a business
Speaker 6: appoint in a half an hour. I've been out of
Speaker 6: town the last couple of months. I'm due back on
Speaker 6: the job today, So yeah, I just can't spare the time.
Speaker 6: Appointments all day long. I got a whole flock of
Speaker 6: business I.
Speaker 5: Had to clear up.
Speaker 4: It makes it see even come on, let's go. Well,
Speaker 4: there wasn't much doubt about McKinley. He fitted the suspects
Speaker 4: description almost perfectly. Paul slight built, approximately twenty nine years
Speaker 4: of age, prematurely gray hair. We went over the apartment,
Speaker 4: but there was no sign of anyone else on the premises,
Speaker 4: no sign of any of the loot taken in the burglaries.
Speaker 4: We checked the adjoining garage, but it was empty. The
Speaker 4: suspect refused to admit that he even.
Speaker 5: Owned the car.
Speaker 4: Frank got on the phone, called the office and arranged
Speaker 4: for an immediate stakeout on the apartment. When the men arrived,
Speaker 4: we drove McKinley back to the City Hall and took
Speaker 4: him to the interrogation room. He was arrogant and uncooperative.
Speaker 4: We talked to him for a full hour, but he'd.
Speaker 5: Ad meant nothing.
Speaker 4: Frank left and went down the street to the crime
Speaker 4: lab to check with Ray Pinker on his binding.
Speaker 5: I continued questioning McKinley.
Speaker 6: I don't care what the old man says. I don't
Speaker 6: know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: He described you perfectly. He says you were in his
Speaker 4: fixed shop a little over a week ago. You told
Speaker 4: him you were an inventor. You ordered this gadget from
Speaker 4: him here.
Speaker 6: I don't get it. What's that supposed to prove?
Speaker 5: Well, you admit you went to the old man. You
Speaker 5: had to make this thing up for you didn't.
Speaker 6: I don't admit anything. Why should.
Speaker 5: All we're looking for is a straight story. We're going
Speaker 5: to get it sooner or later. McKinley might as well be.
Speaker 6: Now you're getting nothing from me. I don't have to
Speaker 6: ten you.
Speaker 5: How about the hotel overund South Alforado. You stayed there
Speaker 5: last week?
Speaker 6: No, of course not. Why should I go to a
Speaker 6: hotel I stayed at my place.
Speaker 5: But you said you've been away. You just got back
Speaker 5: in town.
Speaker 6: Sure, that's what I said. I just got back last week.
Speaker 5: Well then you didn't stay at that hotel in South Alpe.
Speaker 6: I told you I didn't. I don't even know the place.
Speaker 5: But you know mister van oh and the old fell
Speaker 5: out the fixed shop.
Speaker 6: I don't know him either. I don't even go near
Speaker 6: that end of town.
Speaker 5: What end of town?
Speaker 6: What are you talking about? Where you said the shop is?
Speaker 5: I didn't mention where it was.
Speaker 4: I asked you if you knew a mister van Owen,
Speaker 4: if you ever went to his fixit, chopped order anything.
Speaker 6: Look, what are you lying for? What's the angle?
Speaker 4: No angle? McKinley. I told you like to have a
Speaker 4: straight story, that's all.
Speaker 6: Well you've got it, mister. You heard everything I have
Speaker 6: to say. I don't know any old man. I don't
Speaker 6: know anything about that hotel.
Speaker 4: Friday talking. Yeah, don how to go? Uh huh? I see, yeah,
Speaker 4: we'll pick it up. No, we'll pick it up right.
Speaker 5: Thanks a lot, you know, a live very good McKinley.
Speaker 5: Now what are you're talking about? That was our handwriting man.
Speaker 4: He just finished checking those exemplars of your handwriting we
Speaker 4: got from you. He compared him to a signature and
Speaker 4: the register at the hotel in South Alvarado.
Speaker 6: I already told you I don't know the police.
Speaker 4: Young fellow the name of Richardson checked in there Friday
Speaker 4: night about seven o'clock. He signed the register, the signatures
Speaker 4: in your handwriting.
Speaker 5: McKinley. Yeah, sure, that's right.
Speaker 6: I don't know the place. I've never been there.
Speaker 5: Now, look, you're gonna have to do better than that. Fella.
Speaker 4: The hotel manager's on his way down here now to
Speaker 4: identify you, sows mister van Owen from that fix it shop.
Speaker 5: Maybe a better piece together, a new story.
Speaker 6: Huh, you've got my story, cop, I was out of town.
Speaker 5: You can't prove where I was, all right, McKinley. Anyway
Speaker 5: you want to, Joe Hi, how to go?
Speaker 6: Pretty good?
Speaker 7: Great pinker, finished checking that step the crime way. There's
Speaker 7: a report on it.
Speaker 5: Thanks. You just about sews it up, no doubt about it.
Speaker 5: You're right, all right?
Speaker 6: What is it this time? What are your phony charges?
Speaker 5: I want?
Speaker 7: Can't be done, McKinley. Report on the clothes found in
Speaker 7: that hotel room.
Speaker 6: Yeah, not my clothes. I wasn't even in the place.
Speaker 7: I'd say you were cleaning tags on a pair of trousers.
Speaker 7: One of the coats traced them through the dry cleaners
Speaker 7: to you.
Speaker 5: But a lie.
Speaker 4: I told you I wasn't in the plate. There was
Speaker 4: just something else here, fella. They ran tests on all
Speaker 4: the clothes they found in your room. They found particles
Speaker 4: of fireclay from the safe that you broke into down
Speaker 4: below in the liquor store.
Speaker 5: Your coat, your trousers, they were covered with the stuff
Speaker 5: save your When you ripped up the floor of that
Speaker 5: hotel room, you picked up something else on the clothes.
Speaker 5: Particles of floor bunnies, small bits of wood. They all
Speaker 5: tie in.
Speaker 4: You're threw No, not quite a piece of broken coat button.
Speaker 4: We picked up a couple of feet from the safe.
Speaker 4: They matched it up with one of the buttons on
Speaker 4: your coat. Of broken on pieces fit perfectly, Kenley, I
Speaker 4: got my story. You know you've got a lot to.
Speaker 5: Explain to take my chances. What's the pitch, McKinley, You
Speaker 5: know you got to come up with a story. I
Speaker 5: might as well be.
Speaker 6: Now there's no story to it. I was out of town.
Speaker 6: I told you that.
Speaker 7: Why don't you get off at mister it's not going
Speaker 7: to take much to make a liar out of you.
Speaker 6: You know that, don Why don't you get off my back?
Speaker 5: That to you?
Speaker 6: I told you everything. I'm going to tell you. I'm
Speaker 6: getting out it.
Speaker 5: All right, go ahead.
Speaker 6: I can wait it out as long as you can.
Speaker 5: I doubt man. I get that's faking, are there? Oh?
Speaker 9: Yeah, Jan?
Speaker 5: What is it that right? When? Fine?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Thanks? He's a news for you, McKinley.
Speaker 7: Yeah, your apartment came back here place a few minutes ago.
Speaker 5: Our men picked him up.
Speaker 6: They're bringing him in now. There's news to me. I
Speaker 6: don't have any partner.
Speaker 7: I'm in business for myself. That's what your partner figures
Speaker 7: tell me. He claims you got all the money. Thinks
Speaker 7: you were trying to run out on him.
Speaker 5: Oh what money?
Speaker 6: Look, I showed you my wallet. You know how much
Speaker 6: I got.
Speaker 5: And we're going to ask you just once more.
Speaker 6: You got it? There's nothing else to say.
Speaker 5: Rank.
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's book him in. According to Rogers's partner's willing
Speaker 7: to talk. I'll get the story from him, all right, McKinley,
Speaker 7: let's go.
Speaker 5: What do you mean, go away at Maine jail. We're
Speaker 5: booking you in come on, let's go go ahead.
Speaker 6: Yeah, come on, what did he say anyway? This guy
Speaker 6: you say they picked up?
Speaker 5: Were your partner told you what he said? Why? What's alone?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 7: I just say better order appistenigrapher han Joe. They are
Speaker 7: ready to take the statement when they bring the guy in.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a good idea.
Speaker 6: Sorry, Yeah, let's go back. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On September nineteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
Speaker 3: of ninety one City and County of Los Angeles, State
Speaker 3: of California.
Speaker 5: In a moment the results of that trial.
Speaker 3: Ralph Arthur McKinley and his accomplished John Warren Hatfield, We're
Speaker 3: tried and convicted on six counts of second degree burglary.
Speaker 3: They received sentences as prescribed by law, second degree burglary
Speaker 3: as punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not
Speaker 3: more than one year, or by imprisonment in the state
Speaker 3: penitentiary for not less than one nor more than fifteen.
Speaker 2: Years, Ladies and gentlemen, to protect our nation in the
Speaker 2: free world against communist aggression, we must produce vast quantities
Speaker 2: of guns, planes, tanks, and explosives. Defense of our country
Speaker 2: against aggression abroad and inflation at home depends on our
Speaker 2: ability to fill both our military and civilian requirements. Remember,
Speaker 2: the better we produce, the stronger we grow.
Speaker 3: You have just heard drag met a series of authentic
Speaker 3: cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office
Speaker 3: of Chief of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles Police
Speaker 3: Department Technical Advisors. Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant Marty Winn, Sergeant
Speaker 3: Frans Racer. Heard Tonight where Harry Bartel Stacey, Harris, Jack
Speaker 3: Rushin script by Jim Mosey, music by Wilter Schuman. Hell
Speaker 3: give me speaking.
Speaker 6: There's more adventurous entertainment with Nightbeat.
Speaker 5: Next on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. Well, Martin Milner was unable to appear. Whether
Speaker 1: it was illness or a scheduling conflict, we don't know,
Speaker 1: but given the short length of the Bill Lockwood incumbency,
Speaker 1: it's a bit unfortunate. Now, of course, Frank Smith would
Speaker 1: become Friday's new partner, although not Frank Smith as we
Speaker 1: hear him here. But it is fair to say that
Speaker 1: Web was pretty well settled on that being name and
Speaker 1: fairly quickly. In June nineteen fifty two, the Dragnet comic
Speaker 1: strip was launched and it featured Friday having a partner
Speaker 1: of Frank Smith, and that would be a theme where
Speaker 1: that would be the predominant name, even as they tried
Speaker 1: a couple different actors in the particular part, so it
Speaker 1: begins to look more and more like Frank Smith, whoever
Speaker 1: that's going to be. I do have to say regarding
Speaker 1: or criminal, I don't think anyone should be a criminal,
Speaker 1: but that goes double a and shriplay for those of
Speaker 1: us who are distinctly identifiable. I know that there are
Speaker 1: quite a few people for whom it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a pastime to look at local booking photos and people
Speaker 1: who really really do stand out. And a few things
Speaker 1: stand out, like prematurely a grain man in his twenties,
Speaker 1: or at least few things dead back in nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: people have found a whole lot of other, even more
Speaker 1: distinct ways to stand out. Now, whether his partner had
Speaker 1: told all or not, there's a good case to argue
Speaker 1: or to imagine that they were making up a story
Speaker 1: to get a confession. I think they were doing the
Speaker 1: guy a favor. Whether that was their intention or not,
Speaker 1: because yeah, he was going to jail regardless because he
Speaker 1: was just too recognizable not to. But at least he
Speaker 1: didn't take the full heat alone. All right, Well, now
Speaker 1: it's time to think Orreon supporter of the day, and
Speaker 1: I want to thank Jeffreary, Patreon supporter since October twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant
Speaker 1: level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more per month.
Speaker 1: Thanks for your support, Jeffrey, And that will do it
Speaker 1: for today. If you are enjoying the podcast, please follow
Speaker 1: us using your favorite podcast software and be sure to
Speaker 1: rate and review the podcast wherever you download it from.
Speaker 1: We'll be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet,
Speaker 1: but join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny
Speaker 1: dollar Ware.
Speaker 10: It'm five a buck and a half for a cab
Speaker 10: is seven twenty seventy fifty first a real fancy place
Speaker 10: and the dramin were enough go bray to think a battleship.
Speaker 10: I showed him my credentials and he has the elevator
Speaker 10: boy taking it to the single apartment on the whole
Speaker 10: seventh four.
Speaker 5: Aheads.
Speaker 9: I think it does open like it usually is? Yes,
Speaker 9: bling bling, Hello.
Speaker 11: Anybody eighteen?
Speaker 9: Pretty same one who's in a Randy Singer in homicide.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram dot com. Slice Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham's son and all